LYT Young Assessor Anna Gibson reflects on taking the voices and experiences of young people from local communities to national policy discussions at Party Conference.
My name is Anna Gibson and I am a Young Assessor working with the NYA on the Local Youth Transformation (LYT) Programme. Our role as Young Assessors is about giving that young person’s perspective, supporting and advising local authorities on how they implement the programme and most importantly, ensuring that young people are at the heart of it all.
I found my belonging and my safe place through youth work and youth voice when I joined my local youth council. Having that in my life shaped the person I am today, and gave me the confidence to take opportunities such as speaking on panels alongside decision makers at party conferences. I was lucky that I had access to youth work and a youth worker in my life. That should not be down to luck. Therefore, I wanted to be a Young Assessor and ensure that young people are able to access the same opportunities and feel as though they can shape their community and that they do belong in their community.
It is always an honour to have been able to advocate for young people and I relished the opportunity to discuss what has been learned through the programme at the Labour Party Conference this year at the fringe event hosted by the NYA: ‘Rebuilding the Youth Sector: Lessons From Local Youth Transformation Pilots’. I am studying Politics at university, so the opportunity to network with interest groups as well as decision makers such as MPs and councillors and seeing first hand in practice what I am learning about in my degree was so exciting for me!
I truly understood the importance of the Young Assessor role this summer, when I was visiting Stoke-on-Trent to see first hand the progress that had been made. A youth worker highlighted to me just how invaluable it was for young people to see people like them in positions of power and influence. It showed them that they can make change and be just as powerful as adults in positions of authority. That is why it is so important for young people to be visibly and purposefully contributing on panels such as these alongside decision makers such as MPs and councillors.
At the event, I spoke about meaningful youth voice and why it needs to be central to our local services and policy making processes. Meaningful youth voice is about ensuring that every young person regardless of who they are and where they live, has that equal opportunity to weigh in. Every local authority on the LYT programme has such passion about young people, the value they add to the community, and how their voices have been at the heart of the programme. But how is that passion conveyed to those young people? We need to go back to young people and tell them about the influence they have had and show young people that they matter because they do matter and they do belong in their community.
On the panel, Natasha Irons MP spoke about the Youth Services Bill that she put forward to Parliament, which is about tightening the statutory duty, therefore ensuring that every young person, regardless of who they are and where they live, has the opportunity to access youth work, has a trusted adult and find their safe space where they belong. That should be a right and not a postcode lottery.
There was such optimism during the panel discussion and I was heartened to hear that decision makers were passionate about young people, their voices shaping their community and the right of young people to have access to a trusted adult and a safe place where they belong, whatever that looks like. That was my biggest takeaway. I hope we can turn this optimism into action as the National Youth Strategy continues to be implemented in our society and as the LYT programme is extended, and actively ensure that every young person feels like they belong and shape the world they live in.
